Our First Week Of September...

Well, hello!



Such busy, busy days here! So many times I have things I want to share here...but that requires time. And that has not been something I have in overabundance.

I won't list all the reasons for that as it doesn't matter...and most of you have similar stories to tell. But I would like to share some pictures from our first week of September.

On Labor Day we spent a family day. I realize for most families that holidays mean gatherings with friends and family. We tend to be the opposite. We spend a great deal of our life with people and helping people (And we LOVE that!), but when the summer holidays roll around we tend to like to hibernate a bit. We like to really emphasize our family unit and we strive to do things that our kids will love. Our kids love these days and Ricky declares them his favorite in all the world. As a parent that means a lot to me as I want to not only create special memories for them to remember, but teach them that memories are made of love and time spent together.

We took the kids to a local school playground that they had never played at before...and were they ever excited!! How fun to hear their excitement and watch their antics. Joshua was especially challenging to keep up with as he has no fear and wanted to try everything!

Ryan immediately found something to climb...





Joshua on the swings...




...and everywhere else he could be!







My cute boy Jonathan dressed as a conductor...



He is always on the run!






He melts my heart!




Our Jack...






Our pretty girl...




Our oldest...






Basketball, one of our favorite sports...




Need a break already?



My husband never wants to miss out on the fun. He is on the play area, too! (I love that man!)



Upside down again...reminds me of camp!



The day also included ice cream, garden harvesting, a cook out and lots of goofing off together. It was sad to see the day end, but we were thankful for our wonderful day.

School decorations...I love visuals and always tend to turn our living room into a full-fledged classroom as much as possible. The children enjoy it. Here is the start of our annual Fall transformation...










We have done more since these pictures were taken. And we are excited about the curriculum changes we have made this year. It is almost all here-Finally! The art books from A Beka are WONDERFUL! Our Creation Science course looks fun and we are anxious to dive in. Saxon math is a new change for us and the kids are excited about the variety. My young ones are enjoying wood pattern blocks and Geoboards thanks to Amy's recommendation. We also are loving Serpentiles and Rush Hour (Thank you, Mom!). We love logic puzzles and these both fit the bill perfectly.

Crayons were not this "cool" when I was a kid!



Ryan and Joshua...



The egg experiment...want to see something neat? Soak an egg in a glass of vinegar for a week. Wow! When you throw it on the ground, it has a balloon-like covering left. Science is more fun with these kinds of projects...





Our kids and their friends singing at a church meeting recently...




More amazing sketches from Ryan! This first is his rendition of the Colosseum...



And a lighthouse. I love how he included a beacon!



My husband found this beautiful large candle holder for my kitchen. (For you fellow Maine-iacs, yeah Mardens!)Isn't it lovely? So many times I will get a jar candle with a scent we enjoy but the color does not match my kitchen. (Yes, that does matter to me!) Now it won't be a problem! My husband is always on the lookout for things he knows will bring me simple pleasures. I am spoiled and know it. What a delight to be Rick's wife!


It is hard to believe that it is less than a week away before our friends return to India. What treasured moments the children have enjoyed together. Rachel and Hana have especially enjoyed many good times this summer...



We all hope this next year flies by...



Maine is a beautiful place to live in the Fall. Hope this season brings you as much color and joy as it does us.

And once again...

Thanks for stopping by,

Chicken Feathers

Blogging....I LOVE it! I still chuckle over that as I hate to write. Lately though, we have been far too busy living to blog. We have had fun-filled, busy days. Labor Day was especially enjoyable. (I will post pictures of that soon.) And I have been scrambling getting school off of the ground. I ordered curriculum later than normal this year (Never again!!) and it takes most of my spare moments to get it organized to where I like it to be.

All that to say, I have taken lots of pictures and jotted down on scrap paper several memories with the hope that in the near future I may actually catch up my small piece of the world wide web. :) But for now, I had a quick, quiet moment (I got up at 4:30--so unlike me!!) and thought I would post some pictures I had previously uploaded here, but not published.


Zack left for college two weeks ago and I took pictures of him with our kids before he left. The kids miss him a lot. He sought out ways throughout the summer to spend time with them. My oldest boys really look up to this young man. He is hard-working and thoughtful. We love you, Zack!!



Ricky did this train on our little Etch-A-Sketch and I was impressed. I spent a fair amount of time with an Etch-A-Sketch growing up, but never produced much on it. Ryan recently did one that made our jaws drop, but that is for a later post. Good job, Ricky!



Ryan is our resident artist. :) He loves to draw, and we love to be impressed with the final product. His siblings often go to him for help with projects. This recent drawing I especially loved and thought Grandma and Aunt Sarah might enjoy seeing. I love the detail and thought he puts into his work. His drawings are especially enjoyable to me as I cannot draw anything at all. That is not a talent this child got from me!



I want to praise God yet again for a working washing machine!!! I love this appliance and do not like living without this convenience. I would not ever want the "good old days" as this machine is one of the things I would have to live without and what is so "good" about that? ;)



Maine saw AMAZING amounts of rain this summer! It has been THE topic of conversation over the last three months. The rain stopped a few weeks ago, but it was too late for much of the garden produce to survive for many of us Mainers. Not much survived in the garden, but the potatoes did! And God knows that if I could only pick one crop to survive our personal garden this is the one I would choose. We harvested a lot of potatoes over two days and we think they taste great. Thank you, Lord!



And one last thing to share for now...when we returned from RI and walked into our house we were greeted with chicken feathers. Our entire kitchen was filled with them...EVERYWHERE! If you have read our post very long you know there is a "chicken" that gets loose from time to time around our church and makes an appearance. The chicken is never seen, but the evidence of his visits always are.

When we arrived home it was literally minutes before church had to start and we rushed in, dropped off our stuff and headed out the door to go to church and re-unite campers with their parents. I never took pictures of the kitchen as we first saw it as there was far too much confusion to think of such things. The next day as we were still finding and tossing feathers I finally remembered to grab my camera and get a few shots...







And this is the sign we found on our door when we got home...



Beware "chicken"... we know who you are and we know where you live!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day! I am off to go read my favorite blogs and then plunge into my busy day ahead. I look forward to spending my day with the ones I love to serve.

And besides--my quick, quiet moment is over. By 5:30 I have two kiddos up already!

Thanks for stopping by,

Changes At Our House...

It is hard to believe that September is here! We are enjoying some changes as we go into this month of change. Fall is a beautiful season and I look forward to the changing of leaves. We have done some decorating for Autumn. We also made some changes in our school curriculum for the year and we are anxiously awaiting for everything to arrive. We are doing school review while we wait which is always a good way to get back on track in the first few weeks of school.

We also rearranged a room. If you know me then you know that is big news. This picture is not the best, but will be appreciated by those who have visited my home as they will see a big difference. The posters on the couch are waiting to be hung, but I wanted to get a picture while the room was clean. (Translated: kids are in bed.). I am anxious to get our school things on the walls and make it look fun and educational. The kids are excited, too.



And the biggest change in our home....(Drum roll, please!!)....Rachel has bangs!

This decision has been a long time in coming, but today at the home of our favorite hairdresser Rachel took the plunge.




It makes her look older...(Daddy has mixed emotions about that!) (And thank you, Jaynee, as your blog post about your girls was very much enjoyed by my daughter.)







I actually teared up as this was snipped. Is that normal?



And that is all for now...



And now I must needs be on my way! ;) My sister said I could not do something that I want to do tonight until she saw pictures of her niece. (Who looks so much like Sarah did at this age!)

Thanks for stopping by,

Cause For Celebration!

(Special note to Amy at the end.)



Hello to all my blog friends! I miss being on here daily, but am getting school up and running. I won't go into how amazingly and overwhelmingly busy we have been as most of you have "super-schedules" of your own and do not need to hear of my own busyness. My free time is much more sparse, but I will not complain as it is a temporary problem. I look forward to being on here more regularly soon.

Speaking of school, I want to brag on my man!! My husband loves schooling and studying. He is very intelligent and tends to get straight "A"s-nothing that I can relate to!

He has always wanted to get his Master's Degree, but was financially unable to do so. Also, as soon as he graduated from college he went into the pastorate. A few years ago he started researching correspondence colleges. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical at first as I have seen many people do correspondence classes that I was not very impressed with and then claim expertise in an area that was obviously out of their grasp. But my husband decided on a college and ordered his first set of materials-and was I ever surprised! He had to listen to tapes of every class that were recorded live in the actual classes. This was not read and fill-in-the-blank (nothing wrong with those, by the way), but actually listening to all the teaching. He did three quarters of the year that way. Listening to hour upon hour upon hour while seated at our kitchen table with his books spread out before him. I loved those times as I listened and learned as well while I did my housework.

The fourth quarter consisted of one large assignment-a paper. This paper consisted of 20,000 words with 10 resources. That is A LOT of words! My husband likes to write though and his final paper consisted of 30,000 words. It took several months to research, write, edit and have proofread. The paper has been turned in and his Master's Degree came a few days ago. I am so proud of him!!


What a blessing to be married to a man who never stops growing and learning. He is teachable and humble. I am blessed beyond measure to spend my days being treated as ter-Rick-ficly as my husband treats me.


A future goal of ours is to turn his paper into a book. The topic of his paper is the fruits of the Spirit.

Thanks for listening as I bragged on my man!

Hope to chat with you real soon!

Thanks for stopping by,



Special note to Amy:
Thank you SO MUCH for your homeschooling resources blog post! I had not done my order yet and benefited greatly from your wisdom and experience. We are adding a few new ideas to our curriculum this year. Thanks for taking the time to write all that down and to include all the links. And please do not hesitate to give us more! ;) I appreciate you! Love ya!